May 31: Rafah and redlines

In which, Biden diplomacy is adrift… rather like a certain pier in Gaza.

Rafah and red lines

The fighting in Rafah continued this week with a by now tragically common moment of confusion as an Israeli airstrike hit a tent city, started a fire, and left dozens dead. Global condemnation was swift and immediate with few paying attention to Israel’s claims of a secondary explosion after the initial strike that killed some Hamas commanders.

The Biden administration appeared not to join in the public pillorying of Israel, but walked back its earlier move to sanction the ICC in what I suspect is another attempt to hedge between supporting Israel but not too much. 

Indications within Israel suggest growing internal pressure on the Netanyahu government to both get to an end state in the fighting and avoid further global isolation. There’s now talk about elections sometime this year, but a lot of that depends on the state of ground operations in Gaza where approximately 120 hostages (including five Amerians) continue to languish.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has halted dropping aid by air because the artificial pier is working so well… 

Not really. In a sad living parable of the “big talk, little game” foreign policy work typical of the Biden administration, the pier has been beset by problems. Last week, I discussed the aid logjam that was being created, and now this week, the pier was damaged in heavy weather with supporting boats breaking away from the pier and drifting on to Tel Aviv beaches. The damage also included injuries to US military personnel.